What happend to the Luftwaffe on D-Day?

Question

In the movie, The Longest Day, there was a scene where 2 ME-109s made one pass at the beach, did some strafing and flew away. The pilot was muttering something about the last of the Luftwaffe. I thought that this was just Hollywood and recently, I read a book about D-Day which mentioned that there were only 2 sorties by the Luftwaffe on D-Day. I find it hard to believe that in the whole of western Europe in 1944, the Germans only had 2 airplanes.

Answer 1

Yes, the Luftwaffe didn't provide much of a threat at that point. It wasn't quite two aircraft, though any given location might only have seen a couple. On D-Day "Allied planes fly about 14000 sorties June 6, against about 250 by Luftwaffe".

Very shortly after D-Day it was decided to stop flying barrage balloons over the landing ships: they weren't needed to deter low-level bomber attacks and they were providing aiming marks for German artillery.
Some self-propelled anti-aircraft units were also withdrawn, for the less positive reason that there was a more pressing need for their personnel as replacement tank crews.

For the last desperate mass attack of the Luftwaffe in WW2, see "Bodenplatte" when 900 aircraft attacked, on New Year's Day 1945, in an attempt to catch allied aircraft on the ground.

Answer 2

Between January and June 1941 the five months before D-Day - the Luftwaffe was effectively destroyed: 2,262 German fighter pilots died during that time. In May alone, no less than 25 percent of Germany's total fighter pilot force (which averaged 2,283 at any one time during this period) perished. During Big Week, American air forces targeted the German aircraft industry for special treatment; while production continued, the fighter force took staggering losses. In March 1944, fully 56 percent of the available German fighters were lost, dipping to 43 percent in April (as the bomber effort switched to Germany's petroleum production), and rising again to just over 50 percent in May, on the eve of Normandy. No wonder, then, that the Luftwaffe could contribute less than a hundred sorties to the defense of Normandy. Months of concentrated air warfare had given the Allies not only air superiority, but air supremacy as well.

Answer 3

Well, it's not at all that surprising. The Luftwaffe was reduced to an anti-bomber force in the wake of the Battle of Britan, where many of their best pilots had been killed. With Hitler concentrating on the Russians, priority was being given to the Eastern Front. Normandy was essentially a rest and relaxation area for troops returning from the Eastern front.

Answer 4

Guess the Luftwaffe were all but gone because of the Eastern Front & the repulse of the Russians.
Besides, the British had recovered from the Blitz & had achieved air dominance in 1944.

Answer 5

The Allies destroyed the Luftwaffe in western Europe in the months prior to the invasion. There may have been more than 2 airplanes, but not many more.